Criterion's packaging of Stranger Than Paradise is typically generous, including a bonus DVD with Jim Jarmusch's debut feature, Permanent Vacation (unseen in the U.S. since its original release), and a forty-six-page booklet with essays by Luc Sante, Geoff Andrew and J. Hoberman. The bounty is welcome, but given the film's austerity, a single black-and-white Xeroxed page might be more appropriate. Coming in the midst of 1984's Reagan/Spielberg hegemony, Stranger Than Paradise felt as revolutionary as the first Ramones album. The punk ethos is apparent both in its stripped-down direction and editing — it contains only sixty-seven shots, separated by black leader — and ironic appreciation of lumpen Americana.
Compared to the film's style and attitude, the narrative seems almost beside the point. Hungarian teenager Eva (Eszter Balint) comes to New York to visit her cousin Willie (John Lurie, who also composed the score). Together, they kill ten days watching TV and hanging out with his friend Eddie (Richard Edson). Then, she goes to Cleveland. A year later, the guys decide to visit her there after a poker game turns ugly. Eventually, the trio travels to Florida.
Jarmusch's celebration of slacking paved the way for Richard Linklater and mumblecore, but as Geoff Andrew's liner notes point out, his poetic touch has been less influential. It's noteworthy that Stranger Than Paradise pays overt homage both to '50s rocker Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Yasujiro Ozu. While very much of a product of its time, Stranger Than Paradise's wit and minimalism have aged well. — Steve Erickson
DVD EXTRAS: Far more pretentious than Stranger Than Paradise, Permanent Vacation suffers from humorlessness, Chris Parker's grating lead performance and a tendency to wallow in ennui without the seductive rhythms of later Jarmusch films. The disc also includes Tom Jarmusch's Some Days in January 1984, a silent Super-8 documentary about the making of Stranger Than Paradise, and an episode of the German TV show Kino '84 devoted to Jarmusch.
While the latter relies too heavily on lengthy film clips, it also features an array of insightful interviews.
